Tufted, greyish-pubescent annual; culms 8-50 cm high, erect or ascending, simple or branched from the lower nodes. Leaf-blades 1-20 cm long, 2-14 mm wide, velvety-pubescent; sheaths inflated. Panicle .0.5-6 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, very softly and densely hairy. Spikelets 7-9 mm long (excluding awns), those at the base of the panicle mostly sterile; glumes villous on the back, the setaceous tip with hairs c.2 mm long; lemma 3-5 mm long, lanceolate, bearing 2 apical bristles 2-6 mm long and a dorsal awn 8-20 mm long.

Type locality: Europe.

Distribution: Kashmir, introduced; range as for genus, introduced elsewhere.

Hare’s-tail is a plant of maritime sands and dry waste places inland, frequently grown as an ornamental and sometimes escaping.